nanotechnology oversight - Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies

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make sure that state and local <strong>oversight</strong> efforts
are properly evaluated and that the lessons
learned are used to inform federal action.
NNI should designate a person to track state
development efforts, and INREG should
assign someone to monitor and interact with
state and local regulatory efforts. These functions
could expand if they proved useful.
RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS
In recent years, most of the EHS regulatory
agencies have been deprived of the resources
needed to perform their basic functions.
Therefore, when considering initiatives needed
to deal with a new challenge such as <strong>nanotechnology</strong>,
it is necessary to understand the
already serious constraints on agency resources
and to take steps to enable the agencies to take
on new responsibilities. It is necessary to:
*1. Increase regulatory agency
budgets and staffing. A major increase
in the budgets and staffing of the regulatory
agencies is essential if they are to address the
problems of <strong>nanotechnology</strong>.
FY 2007 budgets (the latest year for which
there are final budget numbers) for the regulatory
agencies are as follows: EPA—$7.7 billion;
FDA—$1.8 billion; OSHA—$487 million;
and CPSC—$63 million. In the abstract, this is
a lot of money. However, it is minimal in the
context of the federal budget or when weighed
alongside the agencies’ responsibilities. Table 1
puts the agency budgets in two other perspectives.
It shows how the agency budgets have
fared over time, and it controls for inflation.
When controlled for inflation, since 1980
OSHA’s budget has remained about the same,
FDA’s has doubled and EPA and CPSC budgets
have been reduced by nearly half .
There are major disparities among the
agencies. The EPA budget is 100 times as
large as the CPSC budget. The disparities are
due not only to the varying missions of each
agency but also to the vagaries of history and
politics.
TABLE 1. REGULATORY AGENCY BUDGETS IN CONSTANT DOLLARS a
(budget authority in millions of 1982 dollars)
1980 1990 2000 2007 2009 b
EPA 6001 4310 4486 3817 3385
OSHA 239 210 226 241 238
FDA 418 471 622 875 845
CPSC 57 28 31 31 38
a. Actual budget authority, adjusted by Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) for January of the relevant year.
b. 2009 from the president’s proposed budget (proposed, not actual), adjusted for January. 2008 CPI-U.
Source: Office of Management and Budget